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Rising cost for MOX facility

February 2002: The National Nuclear Security Administration reports that the MOX plutonium fuel facility at Savannah River, S.C., will cost $1 billion to design and construct, according to the DOE Inspector General. The cost does not include related plutonium processing and waste handling facilities.

December 2005: The NNSA estimates the cost of the MOX facility at $3.5 billion, the Inspector General reports.

In July 2006, Linton Brooks tells a subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee that the MOX facility will cost $4.7 billion, and that the figure had been “very heavily scrubbed.”

April 2007: The NNSA’s estimate of the cost of the MOX facility rises again to $4.85 billion, according to an internal Energy Department memo.

August 2012: The contractor’s estimate of the cost of the MOX facility rises to $7.37 billion, according to an internal DOE memo.

April 2013: DOE tells the Government Accountability Office the price will likely be $7.8 billion. GAO is still conducting a review of that estimate, which auditors expect to go higher.